The protocol here involved monitoring (i) certain discrete regions of the bird's brain, in real time, using implanted wires; and (ii) tracking their (sometimes silent) production of song by measuring air pressure in their lungs.
-
-
all just quit on the spot after listening to people dying in the back of cars they were driving around. Anyway, it was like that. Watching this little bird desperately trying to breathe and thrashing around for 45s while it suffocated in a plastic box.
-
Home. Drink.
-
The piece de resistance was that the research was basically garbage. I mean--the research was fine, we learned some things about auditory learning in songbirds. But the research--I read the fucking grants--was funded on the grounds that songbird vocal learning was a model . . .
-
for human auditory learning. SURPRISE. It is not a good model for humans. Songbirds have two discrete brain regions that are core for vocal learning. Neither are present in human brains.
-
Anyway, that's the story of how I tortured and killed birds and burned god knows how much taxpayer money for a bit of knowledge with no appreciable gain in health or utility for humans. Sigh. Home. Drink. /fin
-
Tweet unavailable
-
yeah I mean I am miserable remembering but mostly I feel bad for the birds, you know? I dont know enough about factory farming to have a strong opinion--wife's view is that they're often more humane than alternatives--but I think people consume meat more directly than research,
-
and so they have an easier time thinking about farm operation. Would be my guess anyway. :/ Anyway it's fucked up. We really are not developed enough in . . . I don't know. Something. To have this much power over others, but here we are.
- 9 more replies
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.